Photo comp 2012

Crossgar Meats Photographic Competition 2012Once again the Society's annual Photographic Competition saw a large number of entries with some additional classes introduced this year. It was encouraging to see all classes well supported considering the lack of sunny days this summer, to get snaps took! This is the 2nd consecutive year that the competition had prize money up for grabs and thanks must go to Crossgar Meats for their very kind sponsorship. Crossgar Meats run a successful premium beef scheme for finished Irish Moiled Steers, marketing it direct to restaurants and hotels.

The judging duties fell onto Mr Nigel Edwards, Tempo, Co Fermanagh. He certainly had no easy task with the quality of the entries received. There was an exciting twist to the judging when the 10 entries to the new Scenic/Novelty class was thrown open to the views of the public on the Society's Facebook Page. The 5 photos with the most 'Likes' were put forward for Nigel to make the final decision!

A note from the Judge....'I soon admitted as I looked through the photos in the different classes that the judging of this competition was not an easy task. The 1st 8 classes consisted of approximately 7 photos in each class, all of which featured animals of a high standard, however what made the judging so difficult was, the animals were all photographed at different angles, the animals were standing in different stances, some up-hill, some down-hill and all the photos had different backgrounds. I decided as the 1st part of my judging to 'cull' any photos with animals that were photographed at a less favourable angle, photos of animals standing on a steep upward or a downward slope and also photos in which the animals white stripe along its back was camouflaged by a white sky background. It was to my pity that some fantastic animals were omitted from the judging, however I do believe my ruthlessness of being over critical on the photography skills was needed to obtain some consistency and 'rhyme or reason' in my judging. Judging of the animals got underway with animals standing in a good stance being favoured to those not standing square on their legs. Eventually, I was happy that those I awarded prizes too were both good animals and good photographs. The judging of this competition as challenging as it was, was enjoyable!!'

Our thanks must go to all those who took the time and effort to enter and 'show off' their livestock and congratulations to all the winners, in particular to Robert Boyle, Millisle, Co Down who got champion with a photo of the senior bull, Springfield Maestro. Robert will take on the judging duties next year!